The Runaway: The Alphas Novella Collection Read online

  Thom. He called me Thom.

  “Yeah, yeah” I stammered, nodding my head and he looked at me amusedly.

  “If you’re sure?” I nodded in reply and he leant forward and kissed me. His lips were warm, I could feel blood pulsing through his entire body, his heartbeat was like a steady drumbeat, but I couldn’t smell his blood.

  He pulled away and stroked my face with his fingers before throwing the covers back and getting out of bed. He was completely naked. I allowed myself to stare before giving my head a small shake. He pulled a terrycloth bathrobe over him and tied it loosely at the front, “Tea?”

  “I’m sorry?” I asked.

  “Would you like a cup of tea?” he stared at me for a while, looking slightly worried, “I was going to make breakfast.”

  I nodded and he ruffled my hair before leaving. Wait, what? Why…? I flung myself out of bed once he’d closed the door behind him and headed for the mirror opposite the bed. Oh my… The sides of my head were shaved but the rest of my hair was still there. I ran my fingers through it. Where the hell was I?

  Throwing on a bathrobe I found on the floor, I decided to have a look around the bedroom, see if I could find clues. Rifling through the armoire and dressers, I found plenty of clothes. He mostly wore t-shirts that looked like they clung to his delicious form, dark jeans, his underwear was… small. Miniature boxer shorts. I smirked as I put them away and found my own clothes. Okay, maybe my style hadn’t changed much, I thought as I pulled out a silver, sequined jacket.

  Closing the armoire, I checked out the bookshelf. A few novels, textbooks on Supernatural Law and Rights, a string with a wolf fang on it, a photo of me and Gorgeous on a sunny beach and a couple of thick, leather photo albums. I pulled one down and flipped it open.

  Photos of us. Leon, Delilah, Azurel and that miserable angel that followed him around everywhere. Some young, dark haired boy I didn’t recognise grinned at me from a photograph of him and Leon. I shut it and nibbled on my bottom lip, and that’s when a heavy breeze drifted through the blinds and allowed sunlight to slip in and glint from the silver band on my finger.

  I put the photo album back and sat on the end of the bed. Hesitantly, I slipped the band from my wedding finger and tilted it to read the inside. Small grooves ran their course inside the band, reading Thomas and Fraser – April 9 2011.

  Mr. Tall, Dark and Delicious must be Fraser. I slipped the ring back on and fell back onto the bed. I was married. I was in the year 2011 when I should have been alone in the year 1984. Was I human? Was my whole existence a lie? A dream? I sat up and stared into the mirror, I bared my top teeth and let my fangs slide down past my lip. Not human. I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath through my nose and I could smell… Nothing. Was he a vampire too, then?

  “Thomas?”

  I needn’t have spun around, because I saw her in the mirror. Beautiful, her chocolate hair cascaded over her shoulders in waves, contrasting with her creamy skin. A black dress with gold netting design clung to her curvaceous figure.

  “My name is Liana, I’m one of the Four Angels of Fate” she told me. “I put you here.”

  That was a lot of information to take in just there. I breathed out slowly and allowed myself time before asking, “Where is here?” An Angel of Fate appearing was just the icing on this weird cake.

  “You’re in the year 2014, a town called Riverbrook, in a house you share with your husband, Werewolf Alpha, Fraser Cole.”

  So much of that statement rang with familiarity. Riverbrook and Cole. Why was that so familiar? 2014?! I’d been married for three years. Wow. Someone had put up with me for that long. Keeper. “He doesn’t smell like a werewolf” I told her simply, speaking more to myself than to her. “Why did you bring me here?”

  She smiled gently at me and I turned around to face her. “I removed certain things from the scenario, including your sense of smell, to make this exercise easier. Shall we take a seat?”

  I looked around hesitantly at the messy bed, “If you don’t mind resting your angelic derriere here” I told her.

  She perched on the edge, “We’ve seen what you are doing to the wolves in Miami.”

  I glared at her, “And?”

  “You are part of a greater plan. Your existence has a meaning. We felt it was right to intervene by showing you what your future holds. If you are captured or killed, the course of the future will completely change.”

  I raised an eyebrow as she spoke. Then I raised my other one. If I hadn’t have shaved off half my hair and brushed the rest to stick up, my eyes would have disappeared under the fringe I’d been sporting since 1917. Then I broke out into hysterical laughter, something I hadn’t done since 1902, when I won one million pounds at a Poker Game with Leon in London. She looked at me as if I’d spat in her face and I cleared my throat and swallowed the bubble of laughter bobbing in my throat. Fucking angels. They had no sense of humour. “So, you’re telling me I have a… Destiny?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t put it in such twee words” she sniffed, “You have a Fate.”

  “Just as twee” I told her and her eyes narrowed. “I still don’t understand what you want me to do?”

  “Stop the massacres and find somewhere to call home” she told me softly. I began to shake my head and she laid a cool hand on my arm. “We need you, Thomas. And so does Fraser. One day, he is going to come to you for help and you’re the only one who can help him.”

  “Why me?” I asked, beginning to sound desperate.

  She shook her head, the sunlight danced off her hair, “Trust us.”

  She disappeared before my eyes in a flash of light, just as all the smells around me came charging into my senses. My heart beat raced as the need to hunt became overwhelming. Fraser came through the door and I lunged at him, knocking him back onto the hallway floor.

  And then I woke up.

  I stared around the bedroom, Miami sunlight pouring through the bay windows and I pulled myself up, only to see gold, angelic handwriting on the phone pad beside the bed. I reached for it and tilted it in the light to read it; Fraser Cole. Riverbrook. March 24 1984.

  What was the date? I threw myself across the bed and grabbed the newspaper I’d discarded earlier. Finding the date on the front page read February 14 1984. “Happy Saint Valentine’s Day, Thom” I murmured to myself. I set the paper down. He was going to be born in just over a month.

  It soon clicked that I had heard Leon was living in a town called Riverbrook. Could it be the same one? Didn’t matter, I’d find out on the way. I needed to get to Riverbrook.

  ***

  I arrived in Riverbrook to heavy rainfall. Droplets ran down my face as I stared up at the gleaming white manor. Lightning flashed, turning the manor black for a few seconds. Thunder rolled in the heavens. I felt myself lucky that I was more of a rationalist to believe that the weather is an omen of things to come.

  Lightning flashed again and someone appeared across the road before me. Standing in a hazy halo of mist, he approached me and I raised my eyebrow as I smirked. If I didn’t hate him, I’d be in complete awe of him. Slightly softer features than Leon’s demon pet, the angelic half of the duo approached me, “Why are you here?” he asked softly.

  “To see Leon” I responded. “We’re friends, I’m dropping by.”

  “Leon is wrapped up in important engagements.”

  His monotone voice and the way he stared at me made me feel uneasy, and rarely did I feel uneasy, “Such as?” I asked. I needed to know. For sure.

  “The birth of another Cole Wolf.”

  The way he stared at me made me think he knew exactly why I was here. He was an angel, after all. “Oh,” I said, “Well, pass my number along to Leon, I live in Chelsea now” I told him, handing him a card with my name and address on. “Do send my regards on the birth of baby…?”

  He tilted his head slightly as he eyed me up, “Fraser” he told me.

  I bowed my head and turned away from him, making my way back to the ca
r I had hired. I smiled to myself and then turned around. He was still watching me. “Tell Leon if he ever needs a favour, call me. I owe him one.” And then I left, smiling to myself. Maybe, just maybe, this sobriety was going to be worth it.

  AZUREL’S STORY - YEAR ZERO – RIVERBROOK, UK, 1999

  It started on December 31st 1999. The night was dark and cold, my breath rising before my face. Despite the fact Fire was my Element, I still felt chilled in the night. Raucous cheers erupted from the bars and houses around me, tinkling sounds of glass smashing rang out from a garden party that I passed. Fireworks popped, lighting up the inky black sky into a rainbow of flashing colours.

  I stepped out onto the empty road and shrugged my coat collar higher, keeping my head down. The streets were getting quieter as I headed into a residential estate and was met with a single orange streetlamp and houses washed in darkness.

  The millennium was almost upon the humans. The year 2000. And as expected, they were out in force, partying, enjoying the cool but dry air after the rainfall earlier today. I passed a particularly noisy house that was having a party in their back garden.

  I was almost to the corner when I heard a small cry in protest and turned round. Someone was coming out of the noisy house I’d passed, leading a little girl away from the house. She was in pajamas and barefoot and she was rubbing her eyes and complaining, trying to pull herself from the man’s grasp.

  “Hey!” I shouted and the man spun to face me. He looked like any regular Joe I passed on the street every day, but he wiped the shock from his face, “She yours?” I asked.

  He feigned laughter, “Yeah, she’s just tired and fussy. Kids” he told me, brushing it off.

  “Why is she in her pajamas if you’re bringing her from someone else’s party?” I asked, taking a few steps closer to them. The little girl looked up at me and I saw tears shimmering on her little face. I smiled at her, “Hi there,” I approached her, “My name is Az. What’s yours?”

  “Chloe” she told me, “Chloe-Marie Simmons of 24 Gardendale Avenue, Riverbrook.”

  I chanced a look at the door which showed the number 24 in gold. I looked back at her, “Do you know this man?”

  She nodded, “He’s Daddy’s friend.”

  He suddenly snatched her up in his arms and ran. I barely had time to react and she slipped from my loose grasp. I’d reached for her too late. Swearing under my breath, I ran after him, my feet pounding the ground so hard, I feared I’d crack the pavement.

  He didn’t get far, up the street, to be precise, before I caught up with him. I grabbed him by the coat collar and pulled him towards me, spinning him round before headbutting him in the face. He staggered backwards, dropping the girl to the ground. She hit the ground with the most stomach-churning thud and I was torn between snapping this guy’s neck and checking to make sure she was okay. I opted instead to punch him in the face so hard he also hit the floor with a heavy thud.

  I knelt down and helped Chloe up. She was crying and there was a cut on her head, a small trickle of blood leaked down her face and I rifled through my pockets to see if I was carrying a handkerchief. I wasn’t so I licked my thumb and carefully wiped away the blood until I found the cut, “Are you okay?” I asked her.

  “I want to go home” she told me softly.

  “Let’s get you home then, sweetheart,” I told her. I opened my arms and she slipped into them. Picking her up was like picking up a pillow filled with feathers. She was so light and her tiny hands clutched my coat collar. As I approached her door, I pondered just leaving her to go in alone without alerting anyone to what had happened but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so I ventured inside the unlocked door and headed to the kitchen.

  The party was in full swing outside in the back garden, sparklers danced before my eyes, there was a barbecue going, loud music, laughter and conversation echoed around us. Not a single person was aware that this little girl had been in danger. I stepped into the back garden and approached a group of girls.

  “Can you tell me who Chloe’s parents are?” I asked the brunette one, sticking out among the gaggle of her blonde friends. A spark of lust glinted in her eyes as she checked me out then pointed at a man and a woman standing at the barbecue, talking to another couple. I thanked her and went over to them.

  “Excuse me?” I said, interrupting their conversation. They all turned to look at me and the shock on their faces, seeing a complete stranger holding their little daughter, made me angry. “I believe this little girl belongs to you?”

  “Why do you have my daughter?” asked the woman as she tugged her from my arms.

  “I was passing your house when I caught someone leading her up the street despite her protests. She told me she lived here, so I brought her back” I told them. “Oh, and your paedo mate is lying sparked out on the street, so you might want to call the police.”

  The father pushed his way past me to check the street and I looked at Chloe, “You going to be okay, princess?”

  She smiled at me and nodded, “Thank you.”

  I began to smile back at her, maybe give her a high-five but the tug in my gut as I looked into her eyes made my head swim. All of a sudden, images flashed before me. A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes smiled up at me playfully, I was suddenly tugging on her hair again but it was brown this time, I was walking out on her as she called my name, I was watching her flirt with another man across the room from me, I was in bed with her, I was kissing her, I was down on one knee, proposing to her, I was bleeding from the mouth, an Angel Blade in my stomach.

  When I came to, I was still standing, not a second had passed but my breathing was picking up and my brow was beginning to sweat. I needed to get out of here. I sniffed as sweat began forming on my top lip and I turned and pushed through the crowd which was slowly becoming quiet as news of the kidnap and the stranger spread from their lips to another’s ear.

  “You need to stay! The police…” yelled the mother.

  “Keep an eye on your daughter!” I yelled back at her and stumbled onto the street. Once I was sure I was out of eyesight, in the alleyway between the garden and the street, I closed my eyes shut to stop the ringing forming in my ears and thought about the park fountain.

  The gentle sound of running water replaced the sound of chaos and interrupted celebrations. I opened my eyes. The park was empty and the blue-white lights that lit up the fountain made it seem almost ethereal. A place of peace and tranquility. I sat on the edge of the fountain and sent a Whisper to the Heavens for Liana.

  No sooner had her name left my lips she was standing in the water. Her hair flowed down her front and back in what could only be described as poker straight ending in sausagey curls. She wore a white dress which was in a fancy Grecian style with gold decoration to it.

  “I need you to erase a mistake I made” I told her, before she could speak.

  “Was saving her a mistake?” she asked me, her voice soft but without tone or character to it. She took a few steps towards me, the water rippling in her wake. “Was rescuing her from rape, torture and premature death a mistake?”

  I bit my bottom lip, “No,” I replied, “But I saw my future in her eyes.”

  “Eyes are-“

  “The window to the soul” I said hastily, cutting her off. She frowned at me, and I waved my hands at her. Way to piss off someone you’re trying to get a favour from. “I need you to undo my good deed.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t like what I saw” I told her simply. “I’ll owe you a return.”

  She considered this for a moment and then nodded. There was a flash of white light and when I opened my eyes, I was lying in bed.

  I was naked, in bed with a strange girl. I checked the clock on the bedside table and it told me it was 13:22pm. Groaning, I rolled onto my back and ran my hands down my face. Had I really just been that dick? Changed the course of the future to save my own bacon?

  I decided to get out of bed and make coffee. I wasn’t usu
ally a coffee drinker but ever since living on earth, I developed the aches and pains that came with living among humanity. You picked up on it when you were here for a while. Sort of like an accent. And coffee was usually a good remedy for a headache.

  I slumped in front of the TV in the living room, breathing in the scent of my black coffee, no sugar, and turned the screen on. I flicked through some old films and found the news. And then I watched the most horrific deed I’d ever committed unfold on the screen before me.